Saturday, December 22, 2007

Yays!

Yay! The amazing Alan has fixed my computer! I'm typing on it as I... type. Seems the MacPro guys were no good; he says metal parts inside my laptop were dented and screws were stripped (and while I conceivably could have been responsible for some dent-age, I've never unscrewed any of the screws in my computer), and the problem was not the harddrive or the motherboard- the wireless card (or something) was loose. So the $50 problem (Mom and Dad paid the "diagnosis" fee) was solved with a piece of cardboard that now prevents a piece from jiggling. (Um... should I worry about the cardboard catching on fire? I'll have to ask Alan.)

Christmas presents are under control- for the most part. A couple of my craftier gifts were burned in the oven, but at least I have time to remake those items. A couple things need to be wrapped, and I'll be finishing some gifts to a few of my friends post-holiday, but that'll be fine.

I hauled my large, heavy, and unwieldy TV from the cluttered extra room, and it is now perched on my dresser at an odd angle to my bed (the dresser isn't deep enough for the TV to sit square-on) and have hooked up Curtis' PS2. Yay for gaming! And I've been able to watch a movie while I wrapped and crafted (Kingdom of Heaven, Director's 194-min. Cut, 2-discs and 2 nights) (Thank you Studmuffin!).

The problem with playing video games in my bedroom is that the cat thinks that that is the time for me to petting her (also the times that I'm reading, crocheting, using the computer, or doing sudoku). Suzy will get in the way and block my view. I got so tired of her today that I closed the door and locked her out. Then I had to put up with her scratching and "Mmmmm-owwwww"ing at high volume. Then I got worried that if I shut her out for too long she'll hold a grudge and poo on my bed, so I let her in again. (Sidenote: She must have picked up bad language from John Wayne, 'cause she never used to meow in that loud, demanding tone. Several times a day, it's "Mmmmm-owwww!" I'm trying to train her to meow like that after I say the word "chairman", 'cause I think it'd be funny. But it seems to be true that cats are untrainable, contrary creatures.)

Anyway. I forget how I got on the topic, but I found some interesting documentaries. The first one is a based on a true story rather than a documentary, but I really want to see it. Over the GW is a film created by a man who was sent to one of those horrible WWASP places that "help" "at-risk" teenagers. Since I was sent to a similar place (though, thankfully, CEDU was more Synanon cult than POW camp), I'm interested in these kinds of things. Some of it is empathy for kids whose families sent them away to "emotional growth" schools that have no governmental oversight; some of it is sympathy for the kids who went to worse places (I just suffered emotional and verbal abuse... and slightly physical, now that I think about it. And sexual harrassment, not actual assault); some of it is relief that my parents were more responsible in choosing the place; and some of it is the plain old voyeuristic rubbernecking that all humans are prone to.

I watched 7/7 Ripple Effect a conspiracy theory video about the 7/7/05 London bombings. Some of the theories and "evidence" were, predictably, a bit shaky, but it is obvious that they have something there. As with 9/11, the government had produced uncannily foreshadowing statements and emergency plans months and years before the events, and people who didn't corroborate the official story have been silenced or forced to amend previous testimonials. The video gets V for Vendetta-ish, with its talk about how the BBC was in on the plot. The very end gets a little ridiculous, by positing that the TV show "Big Brother" is conditioning the population to be fine with living under constant surveillance- and even wanting it. The narration is a bit bad, and most of the images are unimportant (though I do like how they overlaid Tony Blair's head with a macabre skull. Overdramatic, but amusing).

Enough writing for tonight. In case I don't post anything in the next few days, I hope everyone has a good week! (There. That should cover all the holiday bases without anyone having cause for complaint.)

1 Comments:

Congratulations on the inexpensive computer repair! I thought the hard drive explanation was a bit weird (I've seen hard drives die several times, and while there are a number of odd effects, I've never seen or heard of kernel panics being one of them).

The Ripple Effect movie sounds interesting (although something I would probably roll my eyes at, because I think most conspiracy theories are hooey). There could be something to the surveillance thing, however (although I doubt Big Brother is particularly "in on it"). People sort of are being trained to accept more and more surveillance, and even to broadcast a lot of personal things about themselves for some insignificant perceived benefit (think about Facebook and MySpace, e.g.). It makes me worry for the future of our generation.